Ali Mourabet

The consistent theme running through Lebanese artist Ali Mourabet’s captivating paintings is their uplifting colour palette, whether vibrant and energetic or neutral and calm. Early works present simplistic geometric shapes and abstract forms, inspired by his love of architecture, which begin to transform into more recognisable structures in later pieces. Having spent much of his life in Beirut where he still resides, Mourabet often paints everyday scenes from the city as he observes and depicts the buildings that surround his high-rise studio and immediate surrounding environment.

In more recent works, Mourabet has begun to combine his love for geometric forms with more descriptive elements, creating distinctive landscapes and cityscapes that sit somewhere between the abstract and the figurative. Throughout his work he strives to bring the same sense of peace and nostalgia to the viewer that he feels when he creates each piece; his use of saturated colours, especially in his sun-drenched faces of buildings and inviting beach scenes, giving an overwhelming sense of positivity.

Ali Mourabet has lived in Beirut with his family for the greater part of his life. An architect since 1976, he has a long-running passion for designing buildings, and as a professional artist since 1977, a love for depicting scenes from Lebanon, and this is reflected in much of his work. In addition to painting and architecture, Mourabet also worked as a caricaturist for a daily newspaper and two weekly magazines in Abu Dhabi from 1978 to 1980 and images of his paintings have been used on promotional material by the United Nations UNICEF organisation and the Lion’s Club for fundraising events.

Solo Exhibitions:

• 1988 Los Angeles, USA
• 1990 Spring Gallery, Saida, Lebanon
• 1991 AUB Alumni Club, Beirut, Lebanon
• 1991 Arab Cultural Club, Saida, Lebanon
• 1992 AUB Alumni Club, Beirut, Lebanon
• 1993 Galerie Shammas, Paris, France
• 2021 Contemporary Art Fair, Surrey, UK
• 2023 The Other Art Fair, Truman Brewery, London

Selected Group Exhibitions:

• 1991 Omar Al Mukhtar Center, Lebanon
• 1994 Architects’ Syndicate, Lebanon
• 2019 Brick Lane Gallery, London, UK
• 2019 New Artist Fair, Truman Brewery, London, UK
• 2019 Art Fair East, Sussex, UK
• 2021 General gallery hang, No Naked Walls Gallery, Surrey, UK
• 2021 Summer Landscapes, Will’s Art Warehouse, UK
• 2021 Pop Up Xmas show, Artfully Sorted, London
• 2021 Selected Paintings, MASA-UK, Manchester, UK
• 2022 ‘Journeys Through Colour’, Whitehouse Gallery, Kirkcudbright, Scotland
• 2022 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, London, UK (with Will’s Art Warehouse)
• 2022 General gallery hang, No Naked Walls Gallery, Surrey, UK
• 2022 Fresh Art Fair, Surrey, UK (with No Naked Walls Gallery)
• 2023 General Gallery Hang, No Naked Walls Gallery, Surrey, UK
• 2023 ‘Spring Collection’, R Young Art Gallery, Wokingham, UK
• 2023 Fresh Art Fair, Cheltenahm, UK (with No Naked Walls Gallery)
• 2023 Fresh Art Fair, Ascot, UK (with No Naked Walls Gallery)
• 2023 Group Xmas Exhibition, No Naked Walls Gallery, Surrey, UK

Other:

• 1991 Painting selected by Unicef for use on promotional material for two consecutive years
• 1992 Drawing of the College Hall, American University of Beirut, selected for use on promotional material
• 1992 Painting selected by the Lions’ Club to be used in promotional material for fundraising event
  

Selected paintings are currently showing online with No Naked Walls, UK; R Young Art, UK; Wychwood Art, UK, and The Gallerist, Art Scene and Artscoops in Lebanon. He also has pages on Saatchi Art and Singulart.

“Ali Mourabet is a true artist, possessing a rare ability to stimulate viewers as he conveys artistic ideas that are
communicated and encapsulated as a direct consequence of an inner journey that explores the very essence of
beauty through shape, colour and the essential relationship between forms. The artist’s broad and intricate cultural
foundations stemming from architecture are apparent by virtue of assertive use of line and visual experimentations of
mathematics, as well as the curious philosophical connections to diverse dimensions of art history ranging as wide as
the Metaphysics, Optical art, Futurism, De Stijl and perspective itself.”